Word: schlock
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...SCHLOCK IS A MISUNDERSTOOD art, especially in the hands of Mordecai Richler, Montreal novelist and author of the screenplay for the new film, Joshua Then and Now. After the following hatchet job, I daresay you'll agree...
Properly done, schlock conveys desperation by pointing out life's pitiful, somehow funny underpinnings. It works as self-satire in which the director knowingly winks at the audience--mocking yet still sympathetic to the foibles of his characters. Schlock should not be confused either with camp, where the actors are in on the spoof, or kitsch, which scores its levity precisely because everybody involved misses the joke...
...Good schlock--like An American Werewolf in London or Risky Business--steps gingerly just this side of outright derision of its subjects. Bad schlock--St. Elmo's Fire--hates its characters intensely and usually ends up by offending us or making us squirm...
Comedy, social commentary--call it what you will--Joshua is mediocre schlock Schlockhas many relatives, easily understood by attaching a prefix to define precisely the derived form's relationship to the tradition. I cite several of the most exemplary: rock-schlock (Spinal Tap), cock-schlock (Porky's has this covered) and lock-schlock (prison classics like the oh-so-shameful The Longest Yard...
Tired of all this serious stuff? Looking for some really bad cinema? Head up to Off the Walt Cinema and Cafe (Central Square, 15 Pearl St.) in late July for its "Fourth Annual Summer Schlock Festival". No films are scheduled yet, but you can bet Attack of the Killer Tomatoes will show up on one of those screens. A cartoon festival precedes the crud...